HuntingNet.com Forums - Scrape and crap

This morning I went into an area that we had scouted yesterday. We hunt the area regularly and the deer seem to have moved out. Literally on one side of the dirt road is gun area which season is currently open to bucks only and the other side is bow only for either sex. Yesterday we found an area I nicknamed the " Venison Highway". There are areas that have four and five trails converging into one. It looked like a local road atlas. We woke up to rain so we decided to still hunt and check out some stand sites for next year as well. Yesterday I got flagged in the area and on our way out my buddy heard the bounding of a heavy bodied deer heading his way as I lowered my stand. It was heading from my direction. We were only about 150 yds apart. We split for two hrs this AM to do some still hunting/scouting due to the rain. After about 15 minutes of walking the stomach started to rumble and I knew it would not be long before i had to drop the fifth man! I was in a good area so there was some swamp puddles and I figured getting it into the water would mask the scent, most of it made it. When we got together we went to the area he scouted to clear some lanes for shooting then went to my area. I had jumped one earlier and when I walked to where it took off I noticed it was making a scrape and it's crap was still steaming. On my way out I tied a piece of tape on a limb to mark the most direct route in to the tree I selected and cleared some leaves so it was visible from 30 or so yds. When we returned right under the limb I had tied the ribbon a new scrape was there. Not more than 25 feet from where I had relieved rumbling stomach an hour and a half earlier. So as mentioned in an earlier post with all the animals and folks who crap in the woods deer do not seem to mind the smell.